Receivers for refrigerant of vehicular condensers are shown, for example, in European patent application EP 03 004 717.9, which is conceived for use in the header of condensers in which the refrigerant flows through the condenser in several streams in the opposite direction. The streams form zones or stages that are often referred to as condensation zones or subcooling zones, depending on the purpose. In one such known condenser, one or more condensation zones are on the top and one subcooling zone is on the bottom. The receiving device for such condensers cannot be, however, be used when the arrangement of the zones or the flow path of the condenser must be altered for specific reasons.
Condensers with other, different flow paths are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,315. In order to implement the flow paths shown there, the design of a header was equipped with the corresponding collector in one piece with several channels, which results in a significant (i.e., very demanding) change of the entire condenser if another flow path is desired.
The condenser known from DE 198 30 329 A1 behaves similarly. The header and the collector there have a bead extending over the length of their connection, providing a connection line for the refrigerant.
Kawahara U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,465 discloses a heat exchanger with a receiver structure attachable to the side thereof. The receiver is a fixed structure, whereby completely different receivers must be manufactured for use with heat exchangers having different flow requirements.
Dabrowski U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,884 discloses an air conditioning condenser with an exchangeable fluid reservoir. The reservoir is secured at its bottom to a base, with flow in and out of the reservoir passing through that bottom base. Inaba et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,106 discloses a condenser structure having a liquid tank which, similar to Dabrowski '884, is secured alongside its bottom to a base with flow in and out of the tank passing through that bottom base.
Incorvia et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,468,334 B2 and 6,589,320 B2 disclose a condenser with a receiver, where liquid pools in the bottom of the receiver from which it may pass to the bottom refrigerant tubes of a supercooling core. An absorbent cartridge is located in the top of the receiver, and includes fluted channels on the outer surface of the cartridge housing, permitting refrigerant flow up and around the outside of the cartridge to the porous end member at its upper end.
Balthazard et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,754 discloses a condenser with reservoirs built into the manifolds, where the reservoirs include beading or partitions on their outer surface to define flow pass partitions in the manifold. Flow enters and leaves the reservoir through outlet and inlet openings near the bottom of the reservoir.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.